Perma death: Love it or hate it?

[Qetesh]

Permadeath..

It is what makes this game so engrossing, nerve racking, frightening and addicting. It is what makes you appreciate those long lived characters and gives us a constant influx of new and interesting ones to meet.

We wouldn't have much of a game without it.

[Realedazed]

Heh, do you play Dark and Shattered Lands, Realdazed? Sounds like them.

Nah, its one of those IRE games. If that's the game I'm thinking about, I tried  it and found it completely empty, so I left.

[Angela Christine]

Permadeath is why I started playing too.  Automatic resurrections get on my nerves.  You die, you are brought back, and then someone chats over your clan channel, "Are you ok?"   :x  It just makes me want to reply, "No asshole, I'm dead."  But I wouldn't, because I'm a nice person.  


On the other hand, I'm not totally opposed to limited resurections.  Like in AD&D 2nd ed (I haven't read 3rd ed) you permanently lost an endurance point each time you died and had to make an endurance check each time you were resurected.  Getting a stat raised wasn't impossible, but it wasn't easy either, so for most characters there was an absolute limit of 17 resurections or fewer even if you were really lucky with your dice.  Realisticly even 10 resurections would be unlikely, because you are bound to fail an resurection survival check eventually and because after you've lost 5-10 of your original endurance points your character is going to start to suck in the hit point department, so it is probably easier to let Lucky McDeathmagnet stay dead and roll up a new character.  You didn't just lose things that can be easily replaced like coin, equipment and xp, you also lost that permanent constitution point and that was an enduring consequence.  (It also explained why every peasant and orc in the world didn't also get resurected all the time.)

Angela Christine

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I play D&D and I have been lobbying the DM to introduce perma-death.

That prolly answers the question.

[Foamy007]

AC.... In third edition: the general rule is if you are above first level you use a constitution point, but if you are above that you lose a level when resurrected. I prefer to have the requirement of a quest for the Char's specific god to have him allow him to return to the real of mortals. Often the quest is easy but can turn into some interesting sessions. Especially when the player has to convince the others that he is a ghost and that if they send/sacrifice that tome of knowledge they just found Grumush will let them return or whatever.

Its fun. But I prefer to a total customized game that is another reason i love playing arm. It is beyond all the other games out there and has a feel all its own.

I have even went as far as adapt my D&D games to a desert/arid environment. Which with the new Sandstorm book out, it has helped dramaticly.

[Zharal]

When my charcters die, I just look at the screen with a blank expression, mouth dropped open; raising up my hands I scream, " Nooooooo!"

[Realedazed]

Ah man, D&D machanics... I just liked throwing oversized d20s.  The last game I played the DM did all that stuff in the background. Perma death would be cool though. Too bad I'm usually the one who dies frist.

That brings us back topic, though. Without perma-death people (like me) take dumb chances because they know they will be resurrected.

[Agent_137 (2L2L)]

I started to play arm BECAUSE of perma death

You are not the only one.

as did I, for nearly all the reasons mentioned.

Plus, my own thoughts:
Without death, there is no -real- risk. Without risk, there can be no true success. Everything is becomes easy, and can be gained with only the input of time. High risk should offer high rewards. But if you yank risk out of the equation, the value of everything is reduced. And by everything I mean the 'sid, the time you spend playing, the silt-horror armor your character lusts after.

I played a MUD for seven years that didn't have permadeath. If you died, you lost some skill percentage points. So you'd have to go back out and grind harder to get back to where you were. The whole game was about grinding in your time as a player to get a stronger character. it fucking sucked. I hate myself for playing it for seven years. AND PAYING.

I will only play muds that are free and have permadeath, from now to forever.

thanks for listening.

[Halaster]

I will only play muds that are free and have permadeath, from now to forever.

I hear ya.  Occasionally I get an urge to do some mindless Hack n Slash, so I'll go play a H&S mud for a few days, or maybe Star Wars Galaxies (that's my thing lately) or something, but inevitably, they just don't "do it" for me.  "Oh, I died, my equipment has decayed slightly to 95% quality.  WOAH IS ME OMG.".

Permadeath is one of the most popular features of ArmageddonMUD, and it a large part of what makes us stand out from other MUD's (though clearly not the only feature).  Getting rid of permadeath would ruin the game just as badly as if we put a Smurf Village in place of Tuluk.... oh wait, we alread did that!

[adrien]

on non-permadead muds I play more stupid. i go out and take on everyything. In armageddon you have to keep thinking ahead or else its 6 feet under

[flurry]

I remember before I played Armageddon for the first time, I had a few qualms about both permadeth and the application process.   I hadn't experienced either on muds I had tried previously.  Both seemed a little intimidating.   But really, the harmony of those two features together really do so much to give the game the roleplaying environment it has.

[HalflingWhore]

Gotta -love- permadeath, without it I think the quality of rp drops greatly.